zymurgy...

primary

• orange blossom mead
  
• scotch ale (roughly a Traquair House Ale clone, but much stronger)
  


secondary

• Trip Sixes (somewhere between a strong tripel, and a quad)
  
• Pliny The Red Headed Stepchild (approx IBU 480)
  
• petit sirah/zinfandel (Estate Ltd Ed 2005)
  
• grapefruit wine
  


drinking

• saison
  
• orphan imperial stout (B2)
  
• apple wine
  
• special bitter (B4)
  
• vanilla stout (BIU)
  
• honey porter (BIU)
  
• gluten free cocoa beer
  
• Wet Diaper (100% wet hopped IPA)
  
• orphan beer #2 (B3): unintentionally overhopped super strong bitter (~9.5%);
  


planning

• rosemary imperial stout half the grain bill is Weyermann Carafa II)
  
• chocolate brownie imperial stout
  
• cherry barleywine
  
• super secret experimental belgian
  


retired

• Ellen's IPA
  
• winter wheat wine
  

Audre Lorde on guilt...

"I have no creative use for guilt, yours or my own. Guilt is only another way of avoiding informed action, of buying time out of the pressing ned to make clear choices, out of the approaching storm that can feed the earth as well as bend the trees.

“The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”, p.130

162 posts

Glad that blogger counts my total posts to this blog: makes me feel a little less like a complete slacker. Here is # 163:

I'm sitting here going through a plastic crate of old crap from my mom's garage, mostly from high school. It's oneof those half entertaining, half who-the-hell-was-I-then kind of things. Highlights so far include a Pizza Hut Employee of the Month nametag, circa April 1992 or so, a bunch of old swim team ribbons from age groups 9-10 and 11-12 (I actually won a first in breaststroke once!) and some high school report cards.

I'm doing all this while watching Apocalypse Now Redux (cherry stuff!) and drinking decaf with orange liquer (generic Grand Marnier, since it's $20 at the state store compared to $40 for a fifth of the real Grand Marnier.)

Back to the mill now!

Back from the depths of non-blogdom!

I've been busy traveling, and also had other things that had to get done, and partially, kind of forgot about the blog. Maybe I'll post more regularly, or maybe not. Anyway, today's post is, appropriately, about homebrew, namely my most recent brew, S3: Super Summer Saison.

I brewed it in mid to late July, tasted the first bottle today, and overall, I'm tentatively pleased with it. It came out reasonably true to BJCP style for Saison, see:

http://www.bjcp.org/2004_BJCP_Guidelines.pdf
16C: Saison

It came out to roughly 8.7%, a tiny bit high for style, but I think my gravity calculations might need adjusting, and it might actually be between 8%-8.5%. I used Wyeast 3725 (Biere de Garde), and adjuncts included a pound of dark belgian candi sugar, and a pound of raw turbinado sugar.

My tasting notes:

8/8/06, first taste, 12 oz bottle, cold (from friedge overnight). Opens with moderate carbonation hiss.

APPEARANCE: pours hazy medium orange with small head, dissipates fairly quickly. small layer of yeast sediment in bottom of bottle.

AROMA: tangy, slightly wild, hints of phenolics

TASTE: tangy, fruity, finishes slightly sweet and fruity, then in the aftertaste, notes of bread/biscuit? (not in a papery way, though)

MOUTH: tingly carbonation, finishes somewhat viscous

OVERALL: pretty decent for a farmhouse style saison, especially when I've never brewed one before (or really, anything like it.) definitely drinkable, though far from perfect.

secondary taste as it warms: good, more tangy and wild up front, more fruity esters and phenolics in back.

thoughts... next time I'd probably use a less powerful and wild yeast (it fermented from 1.070 to 1.003 in 68 hours!), and try to find ways to reduce the phenolic taste, since though it's appropriate for the style, isn't my favorite flavor.

Passings

I'm looking out my big front window, across the traffic driving too fast through one of the few north-south thoroughfares on the near west side of SLC, at the open green park across the way, which is punctuated by the harsh beige of the baseball diamond's infield.

The incident for my first posting in a long time was laughing out loud at a person in a bear suit riding a harley northbound up the street. Yes, a full-blown bear suit. Just as I was realizing that this was probably the Utah Jazz mascot, the Utah Jazz promotional van drove by behind the bear.

I spent the last few days working with the next door neighbor to transplant a chain link fence to fix the boundary between our houses. If I do say so myself, it looks pretty damn good for the work of a couple of amateurs with no specialized tools.

The skies are purple and grey and full of thunderstorm potential, it is 80 degrees, down from yesterday's low 90s.

Today I planted a strawberry plant, and I'm about to transplant a small shrub plant that a neighbor gave us.

Today I made hotel arrangements to go to Des Moines for a long time, good friend's wedding reception.

Today I changed out the tires on my bike, from 41/40 all purpose/all season to 26x1.25" touring slicks for low rolling resistance summer riding. I then cleaned and oiled the bike, which was desperately needed. I'm about to recalibrate my bike computer.

Today I sprinted to the post office to mail two packages, riding hard to get home before thunderstorms began.

Today I got an e-mail that an important friend's mother died after a long illness. It was gut wrenching.

Now the sun is coming out. Time to transplant plants.

Everything is better with beer...

Much stress, packing for a month or more away, trying to get taxes done before leaving, and doing several work things.

A Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter, 9.5% ABV, makes it all better.

Taxes: jesuschrist I hate non-resident/part-year resident returns. It amazes me how much more straightforward the federal 1040 is than state returns are (including Utah, California, Colorado), and the NR/PY are just preposterous. I mean, really, really ridiculous: can't they avoid me doing yet another schedule when 99.9% of people will end up with the same number at the end as the beginning?

And today's funny note: the self-appointed tax crusaders in Utah are taxing us at 7%, while the notorious tax and spend liberals in California are taxing us at 6%... grh.

Perhaps more updates will come during the sidewaysdownunder adventure. Or, perhaps not!

The comment I just sent in to NPR's Fresh Air

I just listened to Terry Gross introduce her guest for today's Fresh Air, James Burrows.

She very prominently stated, in both the teaser and the show's intro, that the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen "IS SPONSORED BY HBO". Why the commerical endorsement on our belovedly non-commercial NPR?

Is HBO underwriting this episode of Fresh Air? If yes, it should be so stated. If not, they shouldn't be getting a free commercial.

-[dangr], Salt Lake City, Utah

Bad day

Not every single thing that could be going wrong is, but it's close. First, I was lazy about the laundry, and threw some rags in with the clothes. Problem was, the rags had been used, in part, to clean painbrushes, and so they smell like solvent, so all the clothes now also smell like solvent. We'll see what the second round of laundry, with hot water, extra rinse, and a $750 super fancy pantsy washing machine does.

Out stupid car is in the shop, after we had to pay to have it towed there. (Turns out the shitty Hyundai 10 Year/100,000 Mile Protection Plan that the previous owners paid $1250 for only covers towing until 50,000 miles. Go figure.) I just got the call back from the dealer service department, and they think it was just flooded, since when he tried to start it and floored the gas to start it, it started right up. Ummmm, yeah. Whatever. Then he goes on to tell me that the mechanic recommends new plugs & wries, since the ones in there look like the originals (?!?) to the tune of $160, a new air filter for $37, the 60,000 mile service for $540, and here's the whopper: a new timing belt for $329! And while they're in there doing the new timing belt, might as well do all new drive belts for another $80. Fuck.

Then I opened up a beer to drink while I do the taxes, a Full Sail Old Boardhead Barleywine, and it's basically skunk. It's not bad, but it's not sweet at all, and tastes like a boring old APA or something.

Then my mp3 player wouldn't connect correctly to the computer. Fortunately, though, I can just take out the SD card and change around the songs on that.

Ugh. Maybe I should just go back to sleep.

a haiku, in honor of our impending downundersideways adventure:

wine we will drink much
sing dance scream, live life loudly
yes, much to be had

i know, it's slavishly observant to the 5-7-5 haiku hegemony. but so be it: WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

W5: Wacky Westside Winter Wheat Wine

Brewers: d & j
Style: Wheat Wine / Barleywine / Experimental
Type: Partial mash
Size: 5 gallons (4.135 gal. boil, topped up to 5 gal. for primary)
Color: ~7 SRM (projected)
Bitterness: 59 IBU (calculated w/ Rager method)
OG: 1.110 (actual)
FG: 1.024 (projected)
Projected alcohol: 11.47% ABV (8.89% ABW)

GRAIN:
7 lb. Maris Otter Pale ($1.50/lb)
7 lb. Schreier American White Wheat ($1.25/lb)
1 lb. Muntons Torrefied wheat ($1.50/lb)
Partial mash: 65% efficiency (estimated)
Post-sparge volume: 4.135 gallons

BOIL:
60 minutes
boil volume approx. 4.135 gallons
22 quart (5.5 gal) stockpot, 18/10 stainless steel

SUGARS:
6 lb. Wheat extract syrup (bulk: $17)

HOPS:
2 oz. Fuggles (4.6% AA, 60 min.) ($1.50/oz)
2 oz. Willamette (4.0% AA, 60 min.) ($1.25/oz)

WATER:
bottled spring water (SLC's water is ridiculously hard) (~$0.80/gal)

SANITIZING:
* B-T-F iodophor 12.5ppm for carboy, siphoning equipment, and lid; rinsed with water boiled for 30 minutes
* One Step powder (one tablespoon per gallon) for utensils, hydrometer, thermometer, miscellanous tools

COOLING:
in tub full of snow; approximately one hour 25 minutes to 80*F; after siphon temperature was 64*F at yeast pitch

YEAST:
Pitched at 64*F.
WLP007: White Labs 007 Dry English Ale liquid vial: chosen for high attenuation, high flocculance, high alcohol tolerance.
Yeast starter made 24 hours in advance with 4 cups spring water, 4 tablespoons Muntons light DME, boiled 30 minutes, cooled to 68*F, transferred to growler, liquid yeast vial (out of fridge for approx. two hours) pitched 5:30pm, three piece airlock with vodka.
Noticeable fermentation 6:55pm; at 7:30pm ferment bubbles 4/minute at approx. 65*F air temperature.
LAG PHASE approximately 24 hours.

PRIMARY FERMENTATION VESSEL:
Ale Pail bucket; three piece airlock w/ vodka
(Better Bottle being currently used for wine secondary)
Actively fermenting as I write this, 2/22/06 11:20am, approximately 36 bubbles per minute!

the Boss?

So, I'm sitting at my computer, listening to a CD set from the library. And see, because I'm a little unoriginal and lame, it's the Essential Bruce Sringsteen.

Okay, see, it's like this: my childhood was Springsteen's anthem rock period. I was born the year Born to Run was released. I was seven years old and far too musically immature to know or appreciate the magically poetic Nebraska. Born in the USA, perhaps the most misunderstood song of an era, came out when I was nine years old.

It wasn't until 1995, when a friend, mentor, and practically hero of mine (M.H.) gave me a mixed tape (remember those?) with the title track from 1995's masterwork The Ghost of Tom Joad. This song awoke in me an immense appreciation for Springsteen, and caused me to discover Nebraska, and go back to actually listen to and understand Born in the USA.

Other tracks on that tape, which oh! how I wish I could track it down, included Richard Thompson's extraoridnary (and underappreciated!) song Beeswing. I have a hard time explaining (and understanding) how much this tape changed the way I listened to music, and what music I listened to. Another CD sitting in the pile on the kitchen table is Richard Thompson's Action Packed: The Best of the Capitol Years.

But I digress: Springsteen. While he put out a fair amount of mediocre, commerically viable but artisically lacking music, I confess here that I like his music enough to have all three discs from Essential. If that's lame, well, that's just too bad.

Pictures from the long weekend

We didn't get a lot of different things done this weekend, but we did brew, clearly the most valuable use of our time. We made a winter wheat wine, cheekily named W5: Wacky Westside Winter Wheat Wine. Here are a few images from the day:

This is J looking at the yeast starter, trying to find active fermentation. It was there, albeit a bit slower than the night before.


This is the various pots of strike water and boiled, sanitary rinsing water.


Why buy ice to cool down the boil when you have a yard full of snow, and a bathtub just begging to hold it?


And completely unrelated: here are the cool icicles on our next door neighbor's house.

ummmm, i think they're even serious...

WHEAT OR POTATO WINE

BEETROOT WINE

It's been a long time, been a long time now...

Since I posted, that is. I know, you missed me. Right? I've been to Georgia, and back, by car, through many national parks (pictures may follow.)

Working on the wine I'm making now, and we're both working on the house that we're getting really goddamn sick of.

Here is a photo of today's thing that the morons who previously owned out house did to it.



See, I knew we needed to replace the 220 volt receptacle to the stove, as it was loose. Well, it turns out it had been loose for a while, 'cause the fucking idiots who used to own the house had worked on it. As you can see in the image, the plug part of the receptacle joins a metal plate which holds it in place. (The metal plate in the middle of the plug thing should be snug up to the front of it.)

Well, it had come loose, and the fucking morons decided to take wood screws (see the wood screw sticking through the metal plate), and tried (unsuccessfully) to screw the metal plate back on to the plastic receptacle plug (do you see the word wood anywhere in that transaction?) Then they wrapped the screws in electrical tape (which you can see dangling off.)

How much does a new receptacle cost, you ask? About four bucks. Stupid fuckers.